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"The event began with Wells reading "A Brief for the Defense" by Jack Gilbert. Standing in front of a small podium, Wells projected to the full house of nearly 200 attendees words about sorrow and suffering and courage to "risk delight."

If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,we lessen the importance of their deprivation.

'I think it's very important that we have a sense that we are community. That there is strength. That there are a lot of us,' said Wells, who is best known for writing the Ya-Ya Sisterhood series. 'We can all so easily, right now, feel isolated. ... I think one of the ways we hold on to joy is to come together.

'And on a very deep level, I think it is empathy that can help us. For writers and artists and musicians and filmmakers, our currency is empathy. And so we share our vulnerability with each other and hopefully help create an environment where empathy is nourished.'

Ideally, Wells said, an event like this would grow outward to a place where the audience is not so like-minded, but thinks differently and embraces those differences with understanding."